Cingular billing hamsters at it again

Why is it so difficult for Cingular to simply bill me for what I actually owe? In 4 months, they’ve gotten it right once (last month).

I looked at the bill detail and I see what they did. The system tried to overbill me for $443.54. They manually caught it. Good. But instead of removing the charge, they credited my bill. That’s fine, except for the fact that I never actually paid $443.54, so hence the $349.86 credit balance.

::sigh::

As tempting as it is to just go with this one… I paid $93.68 which is my actual balance and I’ll call Cingular again this morning to correct.

I think Cingular needs to change their top level voice menu prompts to add, “If you are calling because we royally screwed up your bill yet again, press 6.” Would save us a lot of time.

Update: Well, honesty pays. Turns out that the problem is that they took off the charges…twice. Hence the credit. They gave me a $50 for-real credit (without my asking) as a thank-you for my honesty.

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3 Comments

Amazing how difficult it is for a company to correctly do one of the bread and butter details that keep them running. Billing correctly. One time, twice maybe but after that it should be fixed. If it’s happening to you you wonder how many other people it’s happening to and if the amount isn’t so obviously wrong, how many people are being over (or under) charged?

On a sort-of related note, I still wonder why it takes so long to check into a hotel? I can pick up a rental car faster than check into a hotel room.
The hotel has your name and credit card number already and your preferences. Check in should be to confirm who you are and your credit card and then hand me the key and let me go. Even at hotels that have us in their database. It’s like they’re surprised someone showed up and now they have to find a room for them.

Depends on the hotel. We’ve been using Club Quarters (member subsidized hotel) in DC for some of our stays. They have a kiosk in the lobby. If your credit card is in the system, you simply insert it. The computer finds your reservation and spits out the room key. Checking out is by kiosk too. Very easy.